Contact used with edge connector



Oct. 8, 1968 w. H. MCKEE 3,405,386

CONTACT USED WITH EDGE CONNECTOR Filed May 27; 1966 F ea /6 36 HI 4 a 41;?? 2o) /6 26- I l /6 .25 5 4 if 26 I a 26 24 /6 v, n I6 22 g f 26 d asZ ,4 e4 1,? I a 2 as g l I M 5? 2:; Q Q

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William H. McKee,

United States Patent Office 3,405,386 Patented Oct. 8, 1968 3,405,386CONTACT USED WITH EDGE CONNECTOR William H. McKee, West Covina, Calif.,assignor to United-Carr Incorporated, Boston, Mass., a corporation ofDelaware Filed May 27, 1966, Ser. No. 553,453 3 Claims. (Cl. 339176)ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to an electricalconnector for printed circuit boards. It consists of a housing which hasa longitudinal slot for receiving a printed circuit board and a slotnormal to the longitudinal slot for receiving a bus bar. Contacts havingarms for engaging both printed circuit boards and bus bars are mountedin the housing. The bus bars are used to connect a series of housings.

This invention relates generally to contacts and more specifically tocontacts used with edge connectors.

An object of the present invention is to provide a contact for use withan edge connector where the length of the contact is restricted bydesign limitations and the contact characteristics must be equivalent toa longer contact.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a contact havingmeans of engaging a bus-bar.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a contacthaving a spring finger offset from the spring arm.

Other objects of the invention will, in part, be obvious and will, inpart, appear hereinafter.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a contact;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of a contact;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of an edge connector utilizing the contactshown in FIGS. 1 and 2 broken off;

FIG. 4 is a section taken on line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view ofan edge connector broken off showing abus-bar contact; and

FIG. 6 is a section taken on line 66 of FIG. 5.

In the drawing, there is shown a contact for use in a printed circuitedge connector comprising a wrap post 10 which has a protuberance 12formed a predetermined distance from the terminal end of the wrap post10 on each side thereof as shown in the FIG. 2. A connector portion 14extends in right angle relationship to the wrap post 10 at a terminalend thereof. The width of the connector portion 14 is predetermined fora purpose to be set forth hereinafter. A spring arm 16 extends from theend of the connector portion 14 away from the wrap post 10 and is bentforwardly into angular relationship with the connector portion 14. Asecond connector portion 18 extends from the end of the spring arm 16 inspaced relation to the connector portion 14. The second connectorportion 18 and the connector portion 14 have horizontal planes in spacedparallel relationship with each other. A spring finger 20 extends fromthe second connector portion 18 toward the connector portion 14 On thesame vertical plane as the wrap post 10 and extends forwardly in thesame general direction as that toward which the spring arm 16 wasdirected and has its terminal end bent back toward the plane of thespring arm 16 to provide a knuckle 22.

The housing 24 comprises a pair of side walls 26 in spaced parallelrelationship extending upwardly from the base portion 28. and connectedat the terminal ends by end walls. A series of L-shaped slots are formedin the side walls 26 extending from the base portion 28 to the topsurfaces of the side Walls 26. The L-shaped slots on one side wall 26are in offset relation to the slots formed on the opposite side wall 26and have narrow channel openings 32 into the card slot 34 formed by thebase portion 28 and the side walls 26. A thin barrier portion 36separates the major portion of the L-shaped slot from the card slot 34and also provides one of the walls of the channel 32. The channel 32 ofone L-shaped slot is in opposed relation to its companion L-shaped sloton the other side wall 26.

An aperture is formed from the L-shaped slot through the base portion 28and through a cylindrical extension 38 which is integral with andextends from the under surface of the base portion 28. Pairs of L-shapedslots are formed, one for each side wall 26 along the length of the edgeconnector in a number equal to the number of the desired contacts.

To engage the contact to an L-shaped slot, the wrap post 10 is passedinto the L-shaped slot and then through the aperture formed in the baseportion 28 and through the core of the cylindrical extension 38. Theprotuberance 12 expands the internal surface of the wall of the apertureformed in the base portion 28 and the internal surface of the coreformed in the cylindrical extension 38 at the point where the contact iscompletely engaged. When the forces created by the interference of theprotuberances 12 have passed an area, the plastic memory of the materialreturns the wall surface to substantially its original form. When thewrap post 10 is beyond the area encompassed by the housing 24, thespring arm 16 has its upper portion butted against the barrier 36 andits lower portion butted against the inner surface of the side wall 26.The transverse width of the L-shaped cavity is less than the angle ofdeclination of the spring arm 16 providing a preloading of the springfinger 20 which extends through the channel 32 into the card slots 34 inopposed relation to the spring finger of its companion contact.

If a printed circuit board (not shown) is inserted in the card slots 34,each of the spring fingers 20 would, after engagement of the circuitboard, flex toward the plane of the spring arm 16 and simultaneously thespring arm 16 would flex away from the card slot 34. The fact that thespring finger 20 is offset from the spring 16 causes a torsion effectwhen the mentioned forces are applied to the spring finger 20. Thecircuit board will be held by the combined sandwiching action of thespring fingers 20, either between them or, if desired, between asetnofspring fingers 20 and the inner surface of a side wa It issometimes desirable in complex electronic construction to place a seriesof complete connections in a side by side parallel relation on achassis. In many designs, specific voltages are applied to similarcontact stations in each connector. A means of connecting theseterminals with a minimum number of connections is to pro- 'vide abus-bar which engages all the required contact stations. It is alsodesirable not to have the bus-bar below the chassis where it willinterfere with the wiring and, furthermore, it is desirable that thebus-'bar connection be made subsequent to installation of the completeconnections to the chassis. The inventor has, by adding a 'busbarcontact portion to the abovedescribed contact, pro vided a contact whichsatisfies the requirements of the problems set forth hereinbefore. Thebus-bar contact portion has a spring member 40 extending in right anglerelationship to the connector portion 14a in the same general directionas that toward which the spring finger is directed and has a sinuouscontact portion 42 extend ing in right angle relation to the springmember 40 toward the same direction as that toward which the spring arm16a'is directed. In order to utilize the bus-bar contact we cut the sidewalls 26a transversely of the length of the card slot 34a to form abus-bar slot 43 to a depth below the card slot 34a to provide room forthe bus-bar 44, as will be more fully explained hereinafter. At thecontact station a single L-shaped cavity is formed adjacent the bus-barslot 43 as shown in FIG. and on the opposite side wall 26a a contactslot 46 is formed to allow the contact portion 42 to be properly placedin the connector. The engagement of the bus contact with the connectoris similar to the engagement of a contact as described hereinbefore withthe addition that the spring member 40 extends across the mid-line ofthe card slot 34a and under the card slot 34a with the contact portion42 extending into the bus-bar slot 43 in close proximity to the contactslot 46.

1 With reference to the foregoing description it is to be understoodthat what has been disclosed herein represents only a single embodimentof the invention and is to be construed as illustrative rather thanrestrictive in nature and that the invention is best described by thefollowing claims.

What is claimed:

1. An electrical connector having an insulating housing, said housinghaving a base portion and a pair of longitudinal side walls extendingupwardly from said base portion in spaced relation so as to form alongitudinal slot for receiving the edge of a printed board, at leastone of said side walls having a series of lateral slots intersectingsaid longitudinal slot, said housing having a bus bar-receiving slotextending through said side walls in normal relation to saidlongitudinal slot, a contact member disposed in one of said lateralslots, said contact member having a first contact element intersectingsaid longitudinal slot for electrical engagement with a conductorcarried by said printed board and a second contact element intersectingsaid bar-receiving slot for electrical engagement with a bus barreceived in said bar-receiving slot.

2. An electrical connector having an insulating housing, said housinghaving a base portion and a pair of longitudinal side walls extendingupwardly from said base portion in spaced relation so as to form alongitudinal slot for receiving the edge of a printed board, at leastone of said side walls having a series of lateral slots intersectingsaid longitudinal slot, said housing having a *bus bar-receiving slotextending through said side walls in normal relation to saidlongitudinal slot, a contact member disposed in one of said lateralslots, said contact member having a first arm portion having a contactelement intersecting said longitudinal slot for electrical engagementwith a conductor carried by said printed board, and said first armportion having a second arm portion extending laterally therefrom andhaving a contact element for electrical engagement with a 'bus barreceived in said bar-receiving slot.

3. An electrical connector having an insulating housing, said housinghaving a base portion and a pair of longitudinal side walls extendingupwardly from said base portion in spaced apart relation so as to form alongitudinal slot for receiving the edge of a printed board, at leastone of said side walls havinng a series of lateral slots intersectingsaid longitudinal .slot, a contact disposed in each of said lateralslots, each of said contacts having a first arm portion disposed in saidlateral slot having a first contact element intersecting saidlongitudinal slot for engagement with a conductor carried by saidprinted board, said housing base having a bus barreceiving openinglaterally thereof through both of said sidewalls and downwardly intosaid housing base, said housing having an associated openingintersecting said lateral opening and extending from adjacent said wallhaving said lateral opening into said opposite wall, said associatedopening extending into said base in intersecting relation to saidbar-receiving opening, and said contact having a second arm portionextending from said first arm portion, said second arm portion beingdisposed in said associated opening and having a contact elementintersecting said bar-receiving opening so as to engage electrically abus bar disposed in said bar-receiving opening.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,001,171 9/1961 Schultz 33917 X3,008,113 11/1961 Johnson 33917 3,176,261 3/1965 Greco et al. 339-17 X3,231,949 1/1966 Ruehlemann 339-176 MARVIN A. CHAMPION, PrimaryExaminer.

J. R. MOSES, Assistant Examiner.

